View Single Post
07-02-05, 08:34 PM   #39
mondoz
An Aku'mai Servant
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 31
Originally Posted by Littlejohn
Mondoz doesn't think that. His idea is if prices are infllated, then the 6th level player coming to the auction house for the first time sells his stack of linen for 80g. Now he's rich just like everybody else...
Exactly.

I can't find a fault in the reasoning, but it seems like "everybody knows" that gold farmers ruin economies. Perhaps gold farming raises prices for rare stuff, but not for common stuff? If that's true, then 6th level players would see stacks of linen for 80s and desirable weapons for 80g. That kind of imbalance would ruin the game.

I don't think that kind of imbalance would happen, though.
For the purpose of my comments, I'm assuming in your example that the 80g 'desirable weapons' are the ones the 6th level player could actually use.
From personal experience, the number of low level uncommon items far outweigh the number of very high level uncommon items. I'm speaking of how many times they appear on the AH and how many people generally have them. I submit that in our hypothetical WoW realm of rampant gold farmers, low level uncommon desirable items would not sell for insane prices. I don't believe their availability is low enough to allow the market to bear those prices.
If I saw that I could make a killing selling 10th level green items, I'd take my level 60 character, and run through deadmines a few times, and have enough green items to retire. However, since that's not a very difficult or rare ability, the market would be flooded, prices would plummet due to the amazing ability of WoW auctioneers to undercut one another like rabid dogs, and prices would match the item's rarity.
For the even more desirable items, Blizzard's Bind-On-Pickup concept is brilliant. You can't hold those really fantastic items ransom for billions of gold, even in our Farmer's Realm. Even a poor low level non-farmer, typical average joe can go with a few other people into an instance and have the exact same chance to get an 'Uber Item of Doom' as anyone else.
Bind on Pickup is a fantastic equalizer.

However, Bind on Equip items can be sold at any price. But the market would force their price to a level that matches their rarity. Items that are fairly uncommon would be less than really uncommon items, and so on. Epic items will always sell for proportionately more than rare items, etc...
The one important constant is that no matter how much money everyone has, drop rates will not change. If I had 500,000 gold, it's not going to make that Uber Staff of Ultra Death show up more often.

If everyone had 500,000,000 gold, you wouldn't see level 10 characters running about in epic gear, and MC runs wouldn't become snooze-fest cake walks.



Sorry I'm so long-winded.
  Reply With Quote